Michael Jackson, defined the word ‘innovation’ at the height of his historic fame with his musical genius and pioneering dance moves.

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The world’s most popular and largest online travel community, TripAdvisor, has announced the top five germiest world attractions.

Wall of Gum

According to a recent poll on the tripadvisor.com site of more than 4 600 travellers, 34 percent of holidaymakers reported being more “germaphobic” by washing and disinfecting their hands more frequently when travelling since the swine-flu outbreak.

Additionally, its forums indicate travellers have germs on the brain, with use of the words “germs”, “sanitiser” and “disease” up 97 percent, 182 percent, and 112 percent, respectively, between March and May of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008.

1. Kiss Me, I’m Filthy

Blarney Stone, Blarney, Ireland

Legend says those who kiss the Blarney Stone – a block of stone built into Ireland’s Blarney Castle – are rewarded with eloquent speech. But given that up to 400 000 mouths from all over the world touch the stone each year, putting your own to the grimy attraction (no easy task in itself) may be too high a price for the promised “gift of the gab”.

2. Sticky Situation

Wall of Gum, Seattle, Washington

A bizarre tradition at Seattle’s Market Theatre in Post Alley has turned into a fascinating yet very germy attraction – a giant wall of gum. In the 1990s, visitors began sticking their gum to the wall while waiting in line, resulting in a colourful and somewhat stomach-turning sight after more than a decade of gum gathering. Some intrepid visitors have even moulded shapes and faces out of their masticated gum.

3. Lip Reading

Oscar Wilde’s Tomb, Paris, France

It is a testament to the love and respect felt by book-lovers and admirers the world over – Oscar Wilde’s tomb in Paris’s Père-Lachaise cemetery is famously covered in lipstick prints. But with a rainbow of hundreds of visible kiss marks adorning the grave, and countless more planted every year, one can’t help but wonder… isn’t there a cleaner way to show your literary appreciation? One holidaymaker said: “The tombstone of Oscar Wilde is… well, wild – excuse the pun.”

4. Foul Fowl

St Mark’s Square, Venice, Italy

A place of immeasurable beauty, Venice’s famed St Mark’s Square has a dirty side – thousands of hungry pigeons. While vendors no longer sell food to tourists to give to the birds, they still flock in countless numbers, with many visitors choosing to touch and even hold the pigeons. Be careful – these dirty fowl have been known to leave foul unexpected gifts on tourists. One visitor recalls: “I know it does seem a little bit disgusting, but it’s so totally hilarious to see your friend/partner being attacked by birds.”

5. Grubby Mitts

Forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre (Handprints and Footprints), Hollywood, California

The forecourt of this historical Hollywood landmark features the hand and footprints of some of the biggest stars in history. But this intimate look at Hollywood’s hands can get a bit grimy, given millions of fans place their fingers in the moulds of their favourites. You may think about bringing some gloves or hand sanitiser before comparing your own paws with those of the greats. One visiting fan said: “You couldn’t help comparing your feet and hands, too (with those of the stars).”

Source: ioltravel.co.za

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What was your score?

We’re having another Market Day wine sale at our Welmoed cellar door in Stellenbosch.

Dates: Thursday 25 June to Saturday 27 June 2009

Venue: Welmoed Cellar door. Here are the directions: Directions to Welmoed

The following wines will be on sale:

- Welmoed 4-pack@ R 54.99

- Arniston Bay Chenin Blanc/Chardonnay 2007 @ R 14.00 per bottle

- Arniston Bay Shiraz/Pinotage 2006 @ R 12.00 per bottle (case lots only 12x750ml = R 144.00) New!

- Thandi Chardonnay/Chenin Blanc 2007 @ R 14.00 per bottle (case lots only = R84.00)

- Thandi Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 @ R 17.00 per bottle (case lots only = R 102.00) New!

- Bergschaduw Ruby Cab/Cinsaut 2006 @ R 12.00 per bottle (case lots only = R 72.00) New!

If you’d like more details regarding the sale, please contact Anri or Zoliswa at our cellar door on 021 881 8062

Call it fluoride for grown-ups: new research suggests a crisp chardonnay may fight cavities. Italian researchers who tested supermarket-bought red and white wines report both were effective in controlling the growth of bacteria that cause tooth decay and sore throats.

Sadly, though, the ingredients work best when you remove them from wine.

The researcher says the components in wine that fight oral bacteria might one day be added to mouthwashes and toothpastes. Experiments are already being carried out in humans to test wine’s effects on cavities and upper respiratory tract infections, according to Gabriella Gazzani of the faculty of pharmacy at the University of Pavia in Italy.

Her research team has been looking at components of food that might possess any kind of biological activity. The finding suggests wine “enhances oral health,” the researchers conclude.

Picture this, a Mouthwash in a Chardonnay flavour or Aquafresh with a 5th wine stripe.

I don’t think so….

Source: Canada.com

The culture of wine has many customs on the correct way to enjoy wine, rooted in centuries of tradition, and perfected through trial and error. But, while some rules are made to be bent or broken, there are possibly only three things that should never be done with wine. Which in fact is a good thing since the main rule of wine is to be pleasurable.

The first law, Do Not Chill Red Wines.

Red wines have a very high level of tannins in comparison to whites. Tannins are plant polyphenols found in grape skins and seeds. Red wines are usually fermented in contact with the skins in order to add colour to the wine. Tannins also add firmness and dryness to a wine. On their own tannins are astringent and bitter but when used in wine making and in balance with fruit and acidity and alcohol it helps produce some really well structured and full bodied wines.

When red wine is chilled the balance of the wine is thrown off and the tannins become much more pronounced, resulting in a very dry wine. While this does hold true most of the time, there is a gray area to this law as some reds, but not many, have very low levels of tannins and taste quite good chilled.

The second law, Do Not Send a Champagne Cork Flying.

While it may seem festive it is best not to pop open a bottle of bubbly. The amount of pressure inside a champagne bottle is on average 70 to 90 pounds (30-40 kg) per square inch. To put that in perspective that is 2 to 3 times the pressure in your car’s tires. The cork for a bottle of bubbly is generally twice the weight of a regular cork and when popped can exceed 60 km/h. Bringing this physics lesson to a close one can see that a flying cork can inflict some serious hurt if it strikes some soft part of the body such as the eye. Also I have seen windows cracked and ceiling lights smashed. Not to mention the waste of champagne as some will inexorably always foam out. The proper way to open a bottle is to hold the cork in your left hand and rotate the bottle with your right hand until the cork gently pops in your hand with a delicate sigh.

The third law, Do Not Use a Champagne Bottle to Christen a Boat. Pretty straightforward as most privately owned boats are either fiberglass or wood. The smashing of a champagne bottle on the bow will most likely damage the boat. The thickness of the bottle is much greater in order to handle the stress of the pressure that is built up in it. Save the ceremony for Battleships and Aircraft Carriers as they are made out of steel.

Source: heraldnews.com

Man on man love. It doesn’t have to be sexual. The movie bromance is the stuff of legend, so let’s see how well you know them.

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From Ziggy Stardust and Sasha Fierce to Brook-Lynn, Bobby Digital, Bernoldus Niemand and back. Test your schizophrenic star trivia.

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If Percy Montgomery was a British & Irish  Lion…

Here are a few cool pics

The fortune cookie you don’t want to get in a dodgy Chinese restaurant

A smoking room ceiling

So true

Long dismissed by certain purists, boxed wine is now getting a thumbs-up, of sorts, from the realm of science.

One type of cardboard packaging, according to a new study, is better than any cork or screw-cap when it comes to reducing an unpleasant “green” taste that strikes some wines.

This taste may come from one of two sources, said Gary J. Pickering, senior author of the study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Either the wine was made from unripe grapes, or the grapes were infested with a species of ladybug.

For some reason the researchers can’t explain, wines stored in Tetra Pak-brand cartons had the lowest levels of these unwanted chemicals, called methoxypyrazines.

One possibility, Pickering said, is that the chemicals escape through the carton’s innermost layer, made of polyethylene, and then attach to an adjacent layer made of aluminum foil.

On the downside, the boxes were not so good at preserving wine from oxidation over long periods, said Pickering, a professor of wine science at Brock University in Ontario.

The best storage method for preventing that problem, the study found, was a bottle sealed with a screw-cap – which, like the cardboard carton, has some connoisseurs wrinkling their refined noses.

Pickering says perhaps there is some hybrid approach that will borrow the best elements of each wine-storage method.

The benefit of using cartons was a surprise to one winemaster, who works for a member of a trade group that helped fund the study.

“I personally am not a fan” of boxes, says Marc Bradshaw, of Pillitteri Estates Winery in Ontario. “I like to think of myself as more of a traditionalist.”

Yet even Bradshaw started using screw-caps on a few of the vineyard’s wines last year. The reaction?

“There was somewhat of a backlash,” he says.

Source: philly.com

After an investigation on the basic do’s and dont’s of wine tasting, one comes to realise that with the many obstacles we face at wine events, it’s a miracle we get to taste any wine at all.

Wine events and wine festivals are forever filling up our diaries and it is a sad day when one comes to realise wine etiquette has somewhere along the line flown out the cellar door.

It’s nothing short of a miracle that we don’t trip on our stilletos, float on a Christian Dior cloud and fall face down into the spitoon with what one can only presume is a Shiraz Viognier blend in your glass. What follows is a basic guide of what to do and not to do when getting into the mood at wine events.

Although it’s hard to resist walking through a mist of perfume, rather go au naturel at wine tastings as the strong smell of perfume or aftershave has a huge impact on each taster’s experience of the wine. Even keep strong washing powder to a minimum, no one enjoys the fresh smell of OMO in their Cabernet.

Don’t fill and chill. After your tasting glass has been filled at the tasting stand, move away. Wine events and festivals are more often than not extremely busy and everyone would like the opportunity to taste some wine. Even though it’s your favourite stand and the winemaker is single…

A wine event is not Nokia Fashion Week – keep handbags, hats and other accessories small and to a minimum. With popular wine festivals such as Stellenbosch Wine Festival and the WineXpo, space is a luxury. Your enormous hat and Mary Poppins bag is not welcome.

Say it, don’t spray it. Spitting is an artform. It takes a lot of skill and practise to look like a wine taster and not like you’re at the dentist. Therefore, when you do decide to spit (and spitting is important – no one will appreciate your dancing skills on the wine stands), stay clear of any limbs in your way. And whatever you do, don’t spit over someone’s shoulder. There’s nothing as frightening as red wine squirting past your ear while you’re concentrating on the Shiraz in your glass.

As mentioned before, at wine events space is limited and you are bound to bump into someone. Apologise. You might have to say “I’m sorry” close to a hundred times in one night, but it will be appreciated. Everyone understand it’s a jungle out there.

Yes, it’s a cheap night and all you have to snack on is dry crackers and if you’re lucky a few olives. If you don’t like spitting, limit your tasting and drink lots of water in between. None of the above mentioned will be possible if you are solely responsible for finishing Nederburg’s stock for the evening.

Although wine festivals are for the public, respect the fact that some people go to these events to actually taste the wine, not just drink it. It’s supposed to be a vineyard out there – not a jungle.

Source: wine.co.za

Continuing to align itself with fun, funky events, innovative wine brand Versus is hosting the second Versus Backyard Concert on Saturday 27 June at the Northwood Crusaders Sports Club in Durban.

Versus is no stranger to pushing the envelope: the brand was the only wine supplier at SA’s longest-running music festival, Splashy Fen, and have had muscular marvel, Vernon Koekemoer as their special guest at both Splashy and the Wine Show Jo’Burg. The brand also recently launched a new Naturally Sweet wine range, which is proving to be very popular.

The line-up of artists at the upcoming Versus Backyard Concert includes Ocean Drive, Zoe & Somebody’s Child, Celtis and Dr Fly and the Nurses. Sports fanatics need not give the event a wide berth out of fear of missing out on the much-anticipated clash between South Africa and the British Lions: the match will be screened live at the event. After the rugby, guitarist Barry Thomson, The Hairy Legged Lentil Eaters, Shannon Hope and Habit To will entertain the crowds.

Music to the ears and a further feel-good factor is that proceeds of the event are for a good cause as it will be used to develop sport in the local community.

The concert starts at 12 noon. Tickets cost R80 and can be brought from Crusaders Sports Club (10 Ranleigh Crescent, Durban North) prior to the event or at the door on the day. Children under 12 pay R20.

Concert goers are encouraged to bring blankets and chairs, but leave behind any refreshments and drinks. Food and drinks (naturally, Versus wines is included in this mix) will be on sale.

For more info visit: ijol.co.za

From questions of lust and odes to sloth to wanting money for nothing and all sorts of mortal sin songs.

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In the English city of Liverpool, home of The Beatles, a woman is prohibited by law to walk around topless, unless she is selling exotic fish at the market.

So if you plan a trip to Liverpool and for any reason want to take off your top, the fish market is the place to go. The smell might not be easy to handle but at lest you’ll be able to walk around topless legally.

In San Salvador drunk-driving is punishable by death. The sentence is carried out immediately by a hastily-assembled firing squad.

I guess tourists that pick San Salvador as a holiday destination should use taxis as much as possible to avoid some potentially fatal accident. Drunk-driving is stupid and irresponsible but perhaps this is a bit too much?

In Scotland the law obliges citizens to allow whoever knocks on their door to use their toilet.

So when in Scotland don’t bother looking for public toilets, just knock on the first door that you can find and ask to use the facilities. If they have a firm handle on the law, they’ll welcome you right in. This law may be stupid but it does keep the city streets clean; who would want to go in a dark alley when they can use any toilet they want?

In the state of Alabama people are not allowed to drive while blindfolded.

This is one of those laws that raise questions like “can they get any more pointless?” and “what heinous event brought this law on in the first place?”. If you want to fulfill a dream of driving thorough Alabama wearing a blindfold, you’ll just have to let it go.

In London people are not allowed to catch a cab if they are infested with the plague.

It’s understandable I guess. London suffered a lot during the time of the “Black Death” so perhaps they just figured if the disease struck again, this time they’d be prepared. Still, it really doesn’t get much dumber than this.

Throughout Great Britain, pregnant women are allowed to deliver their babies in any public place and even use a policeman’s helmet if necessary.

This would be one unforgettable experience wouldn’t it? Some people travel to England just to get a photo with the famous royal guardsmen, but actually using a helmet to facilitate baby delivery…priceless.

In the state of Florida if a single woman parachutes out of an airplane on a Saturday she risks doing jail-time.

Single women traveling to sunny Florida should stay away from airplanes and parachutes on Saturdays. Skydiving may be fun, but not when there’s a police car waiting for you on the ground.

In Kentucky people are prohibited from withholding firearms if they are longer than 6 feet.

So if you’re a tourist/serial-killer traveling through Kentucky, you’re perfectly okay unless your weapon of choice is longer than 1.8 meters. If it is, you’re in trouble. The Kentucky police force won’t rest until they bring you down.

Source: travelcrossings.co.za

The internet has a neat way of explaining the mysteries of pop culture: graphs! Catch up to another classic web trend with this week’s Interweb 101.

Hated in high school, forgotten later in life, graphs are not exactly the sexiest, most interesting artifact of modern culture. But that’s because we left the nerds in charge. Here are some schematics that make proper sense… and LOLs

Evita Peron didn’t need to make a speech. She could have just used this simple graphic:

Indeed, you need a lot of both to build any city:

Go ahead, ask Will Smith if he’s on the guest list. He’ll show you this:

Absolute truths. We love ‘em:

For the last time, what the hell is ‘that’, anyway?

Finally, the all-time classic- Pacman:

Rick Ashley’s chart

Link: speakersbox.co.za

Last year, we saw a unique trend in the wine world; the world  went wild for ‘pink’ or rosé wines.

I’m not referring to ‘blush,’ which are high-production sweet wines usually adjusted with doses of sugar and colouring, but to the groovy, refreshingly crisp, fruit forward yet dry, pink wines. Rosé wine is typically lighter in body, meaning lower alcohol content, and very young, usually the first wines of a vintage to hit the market.

Rosé is typically made from red wine grapes. Wine gets its colour from contact with the skins, hence zero skin contact will give the winemaker a white wine. Very little contact, two to three days, will give a winemaker rosé.

What is making rosé wine’s popularity grow is a number of factors; the primary is the wine itself is so good. The wines are very aromatic with aromas of fresh cut flowers, ripe red fruits like strawberry and cherry.

The easy approachability combined with the lighter body make them great summertime wines. There is no oak finish, no long-term contact with the lees, nothing but the young wine. This also, for the most part, is why rosé wine is generally inexpensive.

The Provence is an area in the south of France that is thought to be the home of modern winemaking but is indisputably the ‘king’ of rosé wine. Pretty much every region, including Bordeaux, produces rosé, but it is the Provence located along the Mediterranean coastline that produces a plethora of killer rosé wines.

If you, like many of us, are looking for both economic relief, stock up on a couple of rosé wines. They are crisp, clean, generally inexpensive and easy to drink and go with virtually everything.

The Versus Rosé is an enjoyable easy drinking wine. Some experts have described it as follows:

Ripe cassis and strawberry fruit aromas with a juicy ripe plumy palate and long finish.

Source: www.theledger.com

Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but duck when you throw a revolver at him?

Why is it that people say they “slept like a baby” when babies wake up every two hours?

If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?

Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are flat?

Why do banks charge a fee on “insufficient funds” when they know there is not enough?

Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but feel they have to check when you say the paint is wet?

Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection? Why doesn’t Tarzan have a beard?

Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

Whose idea was it to put an “S” in the word “lisp”?

What is the speed of darkness?

Are there specially reserved parking spaces for “normal” people at the Special Olympics?

If the temperature is zero outside today and it’s going to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold will it be?

If it’s true that we are here to help others, what are the others doing here?

Do married people live longer than single ones or does it only seem longer?

Do you cry under water?

How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money into binoculars to look at things on the ground?

Did you ever stop and wonder…… Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, “I think I’ll squeeze these pink dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?”

Who was the first person to say, “See that chicken there… I’m gonna eat the next thing that comes outta it’s bum.”

Why do toasters always have a setting so high that could burn the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?

Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?

Why do people point to their wrist when asking for the time, but don’t point to their bum when they ask where the bathroom is?

If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?

If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, then what is baby oil made from ?

If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons ?

Why do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?

Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog’s face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him on a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?

Does pushing the elevator button more than once make it arrive faster?

Source: myblog.blat.co.za

The first product to have a bar code was Wrigleys gum

Pinocchio is Italian for “pine eye”

The sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.” uses every letter of the alphabet

The average life span of a major league baseball is 5-7 pitches

The Mint once considered producing doughnut-shaped coins

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is “uncopyrightable”

The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds

Most lipstick contains fish scales

Skepticisms is the longest word that alternates hands when typing

One ragweed plant can release as many as one billion grains of pollen

No piece of square dry paper can be folded more than 7 times in half

A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle, a group of geese in the air is a skein

Over 2500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people

There are more than 10 million bricks in the Empire State Building

If you counted 24 hours a day, it would take 31,688 years to reach one trillion

Taphephobia is the fear of being buried alive

A crocodile always grows new teeth to replace the old teeth

The sun is 330,330 times larger than the earth

Clinophobia is the fear of beds

A ‘jiffy’ is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second

Porcupines float in water

Source: strangefacts.com

A new independently published wine guide, The People’s Wine Guide, lists 600 wines and features “blind tasting” to ensure impartiality. It’s aimed at those who buy wine from supermarkets and liquor chains, and is written in everyday language.

Tasting for the first edition of The People’s Wine Guide, commenced recently in Cape Town’s The Nose Wine Bar. The 600 wines were submitted by wineries from throughout the country for the judges’ scrutiny. Their views will be made public when The People’s Wine Guide hits the bookshelves in September.

According to Neil Pendock, who is writing the book in conjunction with wine author and former restaurateur Michael Olivier, the guide aims to assist consumers in their selections, as well as highlight the tremendous diversity and excellent quality of wines found in supermarkets at reasonable prices.

“Most of the media, and other guides, tend to focus on the merits of wines made in limited quantities that carry price tags out of the reach of most and are also not readily available to the public,” said Pendock.

Not a “lofty tome”

“The People’s Wine Guide is exactly that: a guide for members of the average wine-buying public instead of a lofty tome full of wine-speak focusing on the so-called wine expert. The wines they have become familiar with through their supermarket purchases, as well as a couple of exciting new discoveries made by lesser-known producers will be incorporated. The writing style, layout and general tone of the book will be just as accessible as the price and quality of the wines reviewed.”

Pendock said that tasting for the guide is blind, meaning that the judges are not privy to the relevant wine in their glass.

“This allows us to make a true independent judgement without prejudice or subjective views, something that has been proven to sway tasters’ opinions,” he added.

Wine sales increasing

Olivier, who is also a former wine and food consultant to Pick n Pay, says that the amount of wine sold in supermarkets is increasing on a monthly basis.

“With the selection of wines available to supermarket shoppers increasing, it has become necessary for a guide aimed at helping them wade their way through the aisles,” he said. “And just as these shoppers have unique needs in their wine purchases, a guide is needed to assist them with their selections.”

Besides Pendock and Olivier, the tasters are Norma Ratcliffe, winemaker and proprietor of Warwick Wine Estate, Cathy Marston, former owner of The Nose Wine Bar, sommelier David Msebi and Portuguese winemaker and commentator Aníbal Coutinho.

Source: bizcommunity.com

Feeling the pressure of the economic downturn, South Africans are tightening their budgets and cutting out unnecessary expenses. However, alcohol which is a luxury item is still very high on the priority list for most people.

The Nielson Global Consumer Confidence Index saw South Africans’ consumer confidence dropping to its lowest level yet , with 15% of people saying that they have no spare cash at the end of the month – and the 41% that do say they use it to pay off their debts and credit cards.

With these stats, surely South Africans should be cutting luxuries like alcohol straight off the shopping list?

This doesn’t seem to be the case:

Pick ‘n Pay’s food merchandise director Paul Connellan was quoted saying: ” When consumers have less discretionary income per month, goods such as alcohol and tobacco are recession-resistant and perform well.”

Proving this further SAB managing director, Tony van Kralingen says, “The beer market has historically been resilient in tough economic times and it is likely to perform similarly in the current economic climate,”

He goes on to say, “We see sustainable opportunities in the premium market, even though the sector’s growth rate has softened more recently.” SABMiller recently introduced two new beers to the SA market, Grolsch and Dreher Premium Lager. SAB recorded a 6% growth rate in line with last year.

Is this a uniquely South African phenomenon? America, who has undoubtedly been hit very hard by the recession, is reporting the same thing. As Americans face tougher times from a slowing economy, they are consuming more alcohol, Reuters reported Jan. 12. Clearly, people need to hang on to remnants of their ‘normal’ lives in times of crisis.

The questions are clear, is alcohol an untouchable commodity? Do we need to prioritise our expenditure? In tough times people need to find relief and it seems that people will always find a way to fund what they enjoy doing, whether it means changing from their favourite to a cheaper brand or cutting down on their consumption.

Source: bondbusters.co.za

A new Passport that takes you to 14 of the finest cellar doors in the Cape Winelands with major savings of up to 60% on tastings and tours, has been launched to offer visitors a variety of experiences at a packaged price.

The Cellar Door Collection Passport offers some of the most memorable winelands experiences from Stellenbosch and Durbanville to Paarl, Robertson, Tulbagh and even as far north as Phalaborwa! Visit your choice of leading cellars and distilleries at your leisure over a period of 6- months or 1-year depending on your Passport card preference.

The R50 option entitles you to visit four different experiences, whilst the R100 card allows you to visit all 14 destinations. With this new Winelands innovation, you can plan where and when you want to visit, ensuring a day out that suits your own individual needs. The Passport card also makes a great gift of weekends of fun in the winelands - ideal for sharing with family and friends.

Comprising some of the finest wine estates in the Winelands, the Cellar Door Collection covers everything from ultra modern cellars to 300 year old homesteads as well as allowing visitors to experience the age old tradition of a working brandy cooperage. The Passport concept offers visitors a cost effective and uncomplicated way of enjoying the best the Cape Winelands has to offer.

The renowned Stellenbosch area alone offers eight incredible opportunities for eager Passport holders. Alto, famous for their hand crafted red wines, Uitkyk with its magnificent setting, Neethlingshof with its unique kilometre long avenue of pines, Stellenzicht known for their award winning wines and Le Bonheur, still hand-picking their grapes, all offer outstanding wine tasting experiences that will stay with you long after you leave.

Also situated in the Stellenbosch area is The Bergkelder, home of Fleur du Cap; South Africa’s first dedicated sparking wine cellar, The House of J.C. Le Roux; and Van Ryn’s Distillery, delighting passport holders with great tastings along with interesting and educational tours to expand your wine knowledge and keep you enthralled.

World renowned Nederburg in Paarl presents a tour and tasting from the Winemasters range, whilst Plaisir de Merle near Franschhoek, gives Passport holders the opportunity to taste six of their internationally acclaimed wines.

For some visitors a trip to the winelands is just around the corner with Durbanville Hills, a mere 20 minutes from the Cape Town CBD. Enjoy a tour and taste eight delectable wines from the Hills and Rhinofields collections.

Break away for the weekend and use your Passport to get to the Klipdrift Distillery in Robertson for a tour and tasting of four Brandy products and great friendship, with “eish” of course.

In Tulbagh you can visit De Oude Drostdy, the original neoclassical magistrate’s building dating back to 1806 and the home of Drostdy-Hof wines.

The Cellar Door Collection Passport reaches as far as the country’s northern most province, home to South Africa’s famous Amarula Cream. The Amarula Lapa in Phalaborwa is a must for visitors to the game-rich Limpopo Province, especially if a trip to the Cape Winelands is next on the itinerary.

In addition to great value, the Passport also entitles holders to special privileges from time to time, so be sure to enquire about this during your visit. Tickets can be purchased at any of the participating cellars. Tour groups, hotels and guest houses are welcome to purchase them in bulk for their guests. For more information or terms and conditions, visit www.cellardoorcollection.co.za.

Source: wine.co.za